


Shadow

by waddiwasiwitch



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-30
Updated: 2018-04-30
Packaged: 2019-04-30 07:12:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14491608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/waddiwasiwitch/pseuds/waddiwasiwitch
Summary: Roy is a shadow of his former self.





	Shadow

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for Day Five of Moms Made Fullmetal last year: Truth - “Cruel To Be Kind” 
> 
> This is an unusual twist on the prompt I think. 
> 
> Dedicated to @tea-withjamandbread on Tumblr as this was inspired by a conversation we had about Roy and Chris.

**Shadow**

Chris walks quickly through the station. She weaves among the reunited families, the tearful reunions. Those who are not crying are laughing and smiling.

She sees him before he sees her. His shoulders are hunched, that proud posture has gone to ruin. He is walking aimlessly. She knows that look; she’s seen it in the men that drown themselves in alcohol in her bar.

Her fists clench. Damn you, Grumman. Getting under his skin.

“Roy!” she calls. He looks up, and she can see the deadness in his eyes. He tries to smile, but it’s only a flicker.

She walks over to him and puts her hands on his shoulders. She looks him over. His eyes are sunken and his cheeks are hollow. He doesn’t look like he ate or slept properly in weeks.

“I can’t quite believe I’m here.”

“It’s good to have you back, Roy-boy,” Chris said and gives him a hug. “I was afraid you would come back to me in a body bag.”

She hears whispers, and for the first time notices that people are gawping in their direction.

“It’s him! That’s the Flame Alchemist!”

“Cared about his men, unlike the other alchemists.”

She knows Roy can hear them too when he stiffens.

He ducks his head, his hands forming fists. “Let’s go!”

He walks around her and Chris pauses for a moment before following him.

A soldier steps out in front of her and says, “Your son, he’s a hero.”

Chris doesn’t bother correcting the man. She nods politely and follows her nephew.

He feels so far from her, even though is merely a step behind. She doesn’t recognise this ghost. The shadow of the idealistic boy that left for war and returned a defeated man.

Those eyes. It was like he had aged a decade in those few short months.

All those things he must have seen.

The blood on his hands.

And she is disgusted at what he did, but he doesn’t need that right now.

He doesn’t even need an ear to listen. It’s not like she could even begin to understand what it was like anyway.

He just needs her to be there.

There to catch him if he falls.

Even if the fault is his.

Because he’s still her little boy underneath it all.

 

**Fin**


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